First English dictionary of ancient Greek since Victorian era spares no blushes

Re:First English dictionary of ancient Greek since Victorian... by ramblerman on Friday May 28, 2021 @03:33AM (#27312683)

It didn't go from meaning cheerful to then suddenly homosexual. It meant promiscuous and immoral in between.

The victorian dictionary was implying it is a dress worn by a hooker.

from your own source (wikipedia/gay):

> A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, and a gay house a brothel.[2] An example is a letter read to a London court in 1885 during the prosecution of brothel madam and procuress Mary Jeffries that had been written by a girl while slaved to a French brothel:

> "I write to tell you it is a gay house...Some captains came in the other night, and the mistress wanted us to sleep with them."[13]

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Re:First English dictionary of ancient Greek since Victorian... by SideburnsOfDoom on Friday May 28, 2021 @03:42AM (#27312732)

I take your point, but in 1889 academic English though? The primary meaning was still "happy".

Ultimately though, when translating Ancient Greek to modern English, what the 1889 meaning and moralising was is neither here nor there. It is nothing but confusing, and removing it is not "prudish".

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